Snow to continue Thursday night, into Friday morning

Mammoth Mountain Thursday, Jan. 30 as the next wave of the first storm since December moves west over Mammoth Mountain. Another several inches of snow is forecast for the next 12 hours, bringing the storm totals to about two feet at the top of Mammoth Mountain by Friday afternoon. Photo/Wendilyn Grasseschi

The first wave of the first winter storm of 2014 has passed, leaving 12 to 18 inches of snow on Mammoth Mountain and about a foot of snow at the higher elevations of Mammoth Lakes—and the storm is not done yet.

Another wave of snow is expected to come in beginning at about 4-5 p.m. Thursday, with a last impulse coming in over San Francisco early Friday, according to Mammoth amateur weather forecaster Howard Sheckter.

The next two waves of storms, carrying somewhere between six and ten inches of snow, will not bring as much snow as the earlier storm today but before it is all over, Mammoth Mountain should gain about two feet and the higher elevations of Mammoth about 14-18 inches, before the last of the storms exit Friday afternoon.

After that, Sheckter said there could be another small storm Sunday and Monday, after which the Eastern Sierra will dry up again for the remainder of the week.

However, Sheckter is keeping a close eye on the weather models, where he sees another possible wet system coming in next weekend—with an emphasis on the word "possible."

"Next week still looks pretty dry over all, but there are some interesting possibilities that weekend that I will be discussing next week," he said this afternoon.